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Civilization Online adapts Sid Meier series into MMO

XLGames has announced Civilization Online, an MMORPG that uses the broad strokes of Civ, but puts you in the shoes of a single citizen.

Civilization is expanding into new territory with Civilization Online, an upcoming MMORPG developed by XLGames with cooperation from Sid Meier. But as you may discern from the genre, this isn't a standard Civ game.

MMORPG.com reports that the project uses CryEngine 3, and puts you into the shoes of a single citizen. You'll join one of four factions, and be pitted against three others. Your citizen can then explore the procedurally generated world, craft items, and engage in war against the other players in real-time. The game will be broken into "sessions" with various win conditions that subsequently reset at the end of each session.

Win conditions are similar to those in traditional Civ: a military victory through PvP, a scientific victory through building a spaceship, and so on. The factions are said to progress through history in distinct phases: Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, and Modern. As factions discover new technologies, they will outgun armies with older equipment. Finding and building new equipment will also impact how much you can explore an area. Players can make buildings, but larger ones like Wonders will take hundreds of players working together. And since it's a persistent world, players who rise to the ranks of leadership can delegate orders to other players while they're gone.

The report states that it's been in development since 2010, and the XLGames site calls the title "tentative."

Steve Watts

Editor-In-Chief

Steve Watts' youthful memories are are a blur of pixels, princesses, castles, and Mega Busters. After writing about games as a pastime for years, he got his first shot at a paid gig at 1UP. He's freelanced for several sites since then, and found a friendly home at Shacknews. His editorial duties include news, reviews, features, and lunatic ravings. He lives in the Baltimore-Washington area with his shockingly understanding wife.